Jellybelly
"Jellybelly" is a song from The Smashing Pumpkins' third studio album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Billy Corgan considered issuing the song as album's first single but it was passed over in favor of "Bullet with Butterfly Wings".[1] The original riff dates back to 1992, when the band would jam on it during encores. Corgan has said the line "Living makes me sick, so sick I wish I'd die" is one of his all-time favorites.[2]
| “ | I felt really close to 'Jellybelly', because it sounds to me like a classic Pumpkins song from a third album. It sounds to me like the manifestation of everything we've ever done on a third album, whereas 'Cherub Rock' sounded to me like a second album single. But 'Bullet's one of those songs where, you know, it's easy to sing along to and [he affects a drawl] ya gotta sell them records. | ” |
| — Billy Corgan, Chart Magazine, 1995 | ||
The song was covered by American emo group A Thorn for Every Heart on The Killer in You: A Tribute to Smashing Pumpkins.
Liner notes[edit | edit source]
Corgan, from the liner notes of the 2012 reissue:
| “ | If memory serves the original riff dates backwards into 1992, where we'd spasmodically play some concoction of this song if there was nothing else to jam on in a 3rd encore. To spice things up the machine gun bit was added to chop up the monotony on the back end of the blues. Once we flipped the script to bring the rat-tat-tat up front, this led to far more excitement. Sped up tremendously, a Teutonic maelstrom emerged, until there was a starship waiting without a single lyric or melody to accompany it into space. A nihilist manifesto thrown like a pink hand grenade into an alley, I just went rode shotgun with the images until it sketched out nicely the gray of my suburban years. 'Jellybelly' holds one of my all-time favorite lines: 'Living makes me sick, so sick I wish I'd die.' Prescient indeed! | ” |
| — Billy Corgan, Mellon Collie liner notes | ||
Equipment[edit | edit source]
In the Mellon Collie sessions, Corgan used a Marshall JMP-1 rack preamp, fed into an Alesis compressor to drive extra gain.[3]
Lyrics[edit | edit source]
welcome to nowhere fast
nothing here ever lasts
nothing but memories
of what never was
we're nowhere, we're nowhere, we're nowhere to be
nowhere, we're nowhere, we're nowhere to see
living makes me sick
so sick i wish i'd die
down in the belly of the beast
i can't lie
you're nowhere, you're nowhere, you're nowhere to be
nowhere, you're nowhere, you're nowhere to see
there's nothing left to do
there's nothing left to feel
doesn't matter what you want, so
to make yourself feel better
you make it so you'll never
give in to your forevers
and live for always
and forever, forever, you're forever to be
forever, forever, you're forever to me
Availability
| Title | Notes | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Live At The Riviera | Bootleg • Live | |
| Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness | Disc one – Dawn to Dusk | Studio |
| The Aeroplane Flies High | 2013 Reissue CD 6: Live Inside the Dark Globe | Box set |
| MCIS Demos II | Bootleg | |
| Billy's Gravity Demos I | Bootleg | |
| The Killer in You: A Tribute to Smashing Pumpkins | Tribute |
Tour stats
- Total plays: 77 plays (75 full, 2 tease, 1 soundcheck), 1 acoustic, 2 artists
- First performance: The Smashing Pumpkins 1994-03-23 at Redbird Arena, Normal, IL, US (soundcheck)
- First full performance: The Smashing Pumpkins 1995-02-20 at Double Door, Chicago, IL, US
- Last performance: The Smashing Pumpkins 2023-09-09 at Ruoff Music Center, Noblesville, IN, US
Personnel[edit | edit source]
- Billy Corgan – guitar, production, recording, mixing
- James Iha – guitar, recording
- D'arcy Wretzky – bass
- Jimmy Chamberlin – drums
- Flood – production, mixing, recording
- Alan Moulder – production, mixing
- Barry Goldberg – recording, mixing assistance
- Chris Shepard – recording
- Claudine Pontier – recording assistance
- Dave Kresl – recording assistance
- Howie Weinberg – mastering
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Meredith, Amber. Chart. November 1995.
- ↑ Corgan, Mellon Collie 2012 reissue liner notes
- ↑ Brown, Jake (October 2016). "Smashing Pumpkins: A studio history with Billy Corgan, Flood, Jimmy Chamberlin, Butch Vig, Alan Moulder, and Tommy Lee". Tape-Op. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
External links[edit | edit source]
- "Jellybelly" at SPFC